Returning to stock VX suspension
 

As some of you know, i will soon be attempting to take the lowered springs off my vx and put the stock ones back in. I have received some general advice, like to lube the bolts the day before to make removal easier, get a spring compressor, use an impact wrench. I will do this. However I have not looked at the service manual yet so i dont know the procedure. (I think i will get it online in the next few days). Has anyone done this to a civic? Is it as simple as it seems: Jack up car, put on jackstands, remove wheel, compress springs, loosen bottom shock bolt, remove top shock bolt, remove strut tower, replace spring?

or am i in for surprises?

thanks,
James

Pretty much like that. You can look up my DIY on this site for some pictures and things. You won't need to compress the spring until you get the shock off the car, :)

there are plenty of diy's out there and if you have done anything similar mechanically you will do fine.

since you are returning to stock, that means that they were swapped out before. hopefully you will not run into any trouble. if you are going to get any trouble it will be in the rear suspension.

It's not too bad since the suspension has been loosened before. So what are you going to do with those lowering springs???? I'd be interested in them. :)

If possible, you might jack up the wheel/ suspension arm to compress the spring, put in the spring compressor, and then jack up the whole thing. Could save you a ton of cranking on the spring compressor.

first find out what exactly you are dealing with, and replacing, did they just put on shorter springs, or did they do adjustable coilovers, or lowering struts with coilovers, or what, because if they just replaced the springs, or cut the springs, that can change the travle of the strut enough that it will blow out the strut, that is why when lowering, it's best to get whole struts with matching springs.
when I swaped my stock out for lower, it was a tight fit in the rear, and I ended up cutting them off, and having to use a pry barr to pry the swing arm down just a bit to get the new struts back on, so for that part it's best to have help, but other then that, and the worn out bushings that had to be replaced it went smoothly, for the front the only problem I had was I broke the one pinch bolt that holds the lower end of the strut clamped in place, so I had to drill it out, but like was said, with it being pretty new, you shouldn't have those problems, if it wasn't for the broken bolt in the front, it would have taken me about an hour per side to do a compleat swap, and a little over an hour per side for the rear.
if you have an impact wrench, or can barrow one, it will make the job go much faster, and lessen the chance of braking something.

I was going to say I am interested in springs too but it loks like Tomo has dibs....

Hey, a question for you guys who actually know...

When I worked at the auto parts store, a lot of the "gas" shocks were held to a certain length by wire, which would only be removed when the installation was nearly complete. It always seemed like a semi-dangerous stored-energy type of issue to me. Are shocks/struts on Hondas like that now? As in their natural at rest length is fully extended? And if so, does that require special tricks when you change shocks or springs?

When there is no spring on a Honda strut and the strut is not blown, it will extend all the way to the end of its travel. As in a brand new just out of the box strut will extend fully once the wire is removed.

The wire thing was mainly to save on box size and money.

I found it required a bit of prying to get the rear shocks back on my vx, I think the wire is also there to keep stress off the seals, as they are gas charged.